Using BlueSoleil With Macbook Pro Unibody

In my last post i showed how to use the Toshiba BT stack with the 15" Macbook Pro Unibody (and probably any other BT device you would like). I wasnt too happy with the outcome though - i find the Toshiba BT stack to be quite clunky in the way it integrates with my BT hardware and has a very dated feel to the software. On the plus side it was nice and configurable which i do like. The BIGGER downside though, is that there seems to be no option to license the software on non-Toshiba hardware, rendering it useless after 30 days, unless you crack it. As a software developer myself i try to avoid the latter option and support the industry :)

With that in mind i set my sights back on the other two options - Broadcom and BlueSoleil. My first choice was Broadcom, only because the MBP Unibody uses a Broadcom manufactured module. However Broadcom plainly refuses to install itself on any device that has not paid them royalties for the BT stack, which Apple obviously has little incentive to do at this time. So i turned my attention back to BlueSoleil. This was always my first choice to begin with, since it is intended as an all-purpose stack that you CAN buy a license for if you like it. Well i was successful this time around and i can tell you, the effort was definitely worth it.

Installing BlueSoleil On An Unsupported Device

1. Download the latest BlueSoleil release from here (version 6.4.275.0 was used for this writeup)
2. Extract the contents of the zip file and browse to the install directory
3. Open setup.ini for editing using notepad or similar and replace the contents with the following (simplified for ease of reading). Note that while some of these changes may not strictly be necessary, they streamline some parts of the install process and avoid problems later:

   [bsconfig]
   BluetoothPlaceSite=1
   ShutDownBluetoothHardwarePower=1
   DefaultLocalDeviceClass=1
   
   [Install]
   CmdLine=""%SetupExeLocation%%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%\setup.exe"
   [SPDPhoneNumber]
   NumberCount=1
   SPNumber1=#777

4. Save the file and close it
5. Run setup.exe as administrator (this is probably not necessary, but its what i did to achieve a successful installation so vary and post your results below)
6. The installation should succeed with no errors. You should notice the default MS BT stack icon in the system tray has disappeared. Do NOT restart your system when prompted - we want to make a few changes first
7. Open file explorer and browse to where you installed the BlueSoleil BT stack (default is C:\Program Files\IVT Corporation\BlueSoleil)
8. Open the bttl.ini file for editing in notepad or similar. Search for the text 8203. The line that is found should be in a section titled [HW356]. If you are using a different version of the drivers then it is unimportant if this title is different. What is important is that you take note of the title. Change the text 8203 to 8213 - what we are doing here is changing the hardware ID specified in this section to match the hardware ID of the BT module. If your hardware ID is slightly different, then simply change the hardware ID here to match yours (and in all subsequent steps). See my previous post on how to locate your hardware ID if you are unsure
9. At the top of the file, in the [DEFAULT] section, change the setting NUM=363 (number may differ depending on your version of the drivers) to NUM=356
10. Save the file and close it. Depending on your security settings in Windows 7, you may not be able to save the file directly. Instead - you may have to save the file to your desktop or some other location, close the file and then manually move it back into the directory
11. Go to the driver\usb subdirectory and open the file btcusb.inf for editing.
12. Search for the text 8203 and replace all instances (there should be two) with 8213 (again substitute for your hardware ID if it is different from mine)
13. Save the file (again you may need to indirectly save it using the method explained above) and close it
14. Restart your computer and once it has restarted, you should see the new BlueSoleil icon in the taskbar. At this point BlueSoleil is installed successfully, but the BT module is not yet setup. We need to do that manually through the device manager
15. Go to the start menu, type "device manager" and press enter to open the device manager
16. Browse to the BT module under Bluetooth - it will likely be called Generic Bluetooth Device (if not you may have some other BT software installed that should be removed before any of these steps are performed, but you can probably just install it at this point and proceed)
17. Right-click the BT device and select Update Driver Software
18. Select the bottom option Browse my computer for driver software
19. Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer and browse to the location of the USB BT driver modified above (default is C:\Program Files\IVT Corporation\BlueSoleil\driver\usb) and click Next
20. Select the only option in the list, which will be Apple Built-in Bluetooth
21. A warning will pop up saying the driver is unsigned - click Install this driver anyway
22. The device should now change its description in Device Manager to Apple Built-in Bluetooth and is successfully installed!
23. Right-click the BlueSoleil icon in the taskbar and select Turn on bluetooth. You should now successfully be able to pair your bluetooth devices (eg headphones) with your MBP Unibody!

My Experience With BlueSoleil

• A2DP connectivity is ABSOLUTELY seamless - I made my headphones discoverable - BAM they were connected and appeared as connected on the computer. No redundant password prompt or connection dialog. Music instantly started playing through them. Turn them off and sound changes back to the speakers. Turn them back on they start playing again. Absolutely seamless - i dont even have to stop/start the program using the audio device at the time, which i had to do with the Toshiba drivers
• Beautiful icon set - the icons used are all vector graphics and fit very nicely with the slick look of Windows 7
• Minimal set of services - only 3 which is not as good as the MS stack, but way better than the Toshiba drivers which had around half a dozen! They seem to be well designed, making efficient use of resources too which is important - BT should be very transparent to the system in my opinion

As requested, here are the modified INF files (generated from version 6.4.286.0 on 2/12/2009)